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Honouring young business leaders …some Ghanaians decorated at ‘Forty under 40 Africa’ awards
The Forty under 40 Africa awards were held recently to honour the continent’s most influential and accomplished business leaders, under the age of 40, from a wider range of sectors.
Young people from 16 African countries were nominated with the most outstanding personalities taking home the ultimate prizes in their respective categories.
Here is a summary profile of four Ghanaians who were decorated for excellence in their chosen professions. They are Rosebird Ama Dadzie (Theatre and Arts female category), Ronald Tagoe,(Science & Technology) Nelson Amo (Investment) and Dr. Kofi Amoa-Abban (Oil & Gas).
Rosebird Ama Dadzie
The realistic pencil artist started drawing at an early age and developed her talent further as her drawings were being complimented by teachers and classmates in school.
Later in life, she studied Painting and Decorating at Takoradi Technical University, and started building a portfolio as her passion for ‘hype-realistic figurative art’ grew and participated in many art and craft exhibition.
She began drawing African celebrities and sometimes spent weeks and months to produce art pieces with strong emotions to connect with her audience. She captures details of her artwork using charcoal, graphite, colour pencil and paint.
Describing her craft as rewarding, she says her artworks are made from “determination and love purposely to groom and educate people,” as she encourages young ladies especially to be self-reliant, have positive self-esteem, as well as gain confidence to face and overcome life’s challenges.
Ronald Tagoe
Ronald attended Presbyterian Boys Secondary School (PRESEC) and continued at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he studied Computer Science and graduated in 2013.
In 2021, he completed his Master’s programme in Advanced Computer Science from the University of Leicester (UK) and passed with distinction. While at KNUST, he co-founded mNotify, a telecommunications company (SMS and Voice Technologies) with the objective of improving information dissemination within corporate organisations and religious bodies.
The company, under his leadership over the past nine years, became one of the giants in the Communications cloud service space with its products spanning across SMS, Voice Technologies, and the USSD infrastructure. mNotify currently has over 20,000 clients across many industries and makes an average annual revenue of USD 350,000.
He is passionate about Artificial Intelligence and considers social commerce as the future of commerce in Africa. This passion led him to start Chatbots Africa to empower African Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to increase their revenue and enhance their customer engagement using Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots (Conversational Commerce).
Chatbots Africa is currently registered in Ghana and in Kenya. Another application he developed is the Sario App, a music-oriented crowdfunding platform in Ghana which won the Lifestyle App Category at the 2018 MTN Apps Challenge.
Nelson Amo
Nelson is experienced in Business Development, Grant Management, Business Model Innovation, Growth Planning, and Project Management in the profit and non-profit sectors.
He is an alumnus of the Oxford Social Finance Programme from the Oxford University of Business School. He has a Master of Science (MSc) in Development Studies from London School of Economic (LSE) with special interest in Business Model Innovation.
In addition to other certificate courses in Finance, he is the Grant Manager/Programme Lead for ‘mLab Ghana’ a project under the Ministry of Communications with funding from the World Bank. The programme aims to promote the development of digital start-ups, and support them to develop and launch their prototypes on the market.
Mr. Amo had previously designed and led enterprise support programmes such as the Innohub Accelerator Programme, Solidaridad West Africa’s Accelerator for Responsible Gold, fLab Incubator for females in tech, the British Council’s ReadyToWork incubator programme, among others.
He has led consulting projects across several industries including health, renewable energy, agribusiness, green housing. He is a Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance Fellow and a Coach of the Africa Entrepreneurship Awards, hosted by the BMCE Bank of Africa in Morocco.
Dr. Kofi Amoa-Abban
Best known as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rigworld Group, he is an indigenous upstream Oil and Gas entrepreneur and a philanthropist.
The company has operations across West Africa and beyond, and has, over the years, proven its international acceptance as a top-quality service provider.
Dr. Amoa-Abban’s exemplary professional competencies have been pivotal in making local content and participation regulations feasible in the upstream oil and gas industry.
Some of his accomplishments as the CEO of Rigworld Group include securing long-term working relationships with global oil and gas giants like Maersk Drilling, Tullow oil, Modec, Eni, Score (Europe) Ltd.
He holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Ghana and a master’s degree from Oslo University, where his interest in the oil industry was piqued following the discovery of oil in Ghana in 2007.
Prior to establishing Rigworld, he had served as a drill crew member with Atwood Hunter and Banda Wells. His contribution and dedication to the oil and gas sector has earned him several awards, apart from the recent recognition at the Africa 40under40 awards.
By Spectator Reporter
Massive celebrations were recorded countrywide as the Black Stars opened their 2026 World Cup campaign with a 1-0 victory over Panama in Toronto on Wednesday.
Midfielder Caleb Yirenkyi scored the only goal of the match late in the game as he shot in a decent cross from substitute Brandon Asante.
The win gave Ghana a positive start in the competition, placing them in second position behind England, also with three points but with a superior goal aggregate.
After the final whistle, the streets and other viewing centres were turned into partying grounds as fans, mostly clad in the team’s paraphernalia, danced to several World Cup-themed music.
Others blew the vuvuzelas in joyous mood with others putting up a spirited ‘jama’ session.
Former New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Adentan Constituency, Akosua Manu, has urged party members to move away from what she describes as an “entitlement mentality” and focus on unity, sacrifice and hard work as the party prepares for the 2028 general election.
In a statement titled “Is Loyalty a Queue?”, and posted on facebook, Ms. Manu argued that loyalty to the NPP should not be judged by how long a person has been in the party but by their contributions and commitment to its growth.
According to her, the NPP’s history shows that many of its leaders faced significant opposition from within the party before eventually leading it to electoral success.
She cited former President John Agyekum Kufuor as an example, saying he had to overcome resistance from influential figures within the party before winning power for the NPP in 2000.
Ms. Manu noted that after the party lost power in 2008, former President Kufuor faced criticism and accusations from some party members.
However, she said supporters eventually put their differences aside and worked together to rebuild the party.
She pointed to the experience of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who, according to her, faced opposition from some factions within the NPP despite his long service to the party.
“His trials were ten times what Kufuor endured,” she stated, adding that Akufo-Addo eventually overcame the challenges and became President of Ghana.
Turning to the NPP’s current flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Ms. Manu said he also faced resistance from different groups within the party while seeking leadership.
She praised Dr. Bawumia for contributing to policy-based political discussions in Ghana and for remaining composed following the NPP’s defeat in the 2024 elections.
According to her, party members must now rally behind him in the same way they supported former Presidents Kufuor and Akufo-Addo.
Ms. Manu, however, warned that internal divisions and a sense of entitlement remain major threats to the party’s future.
She argued that some party members place too much emphasis on how long individuals have belonged to the NPP rather than on their contributions and capabilities.
“This entitlement does not question impact. It does not ask what you sacrificed or what you built. It asks only how long have you been here,” she said.
The former parliamentary candidate cautioned that such attitudes could discourage committed members and prevent the party from selecting the best people for leadership positions.
She further called on the party’s incoming national executives to strengthen the NPP’s core values of sacrifice, honesty, integrity and dedication to national development.
Ms. Manu addressed the concerns of young party supporters, many of whom she said became discouraged following the NPP’s electoral defeat in 2024.
According to her, many young people remain eager to see the party return to power but are unwilling to support internal conflicts driven by personal ambitions.
She urged party elders to place the interests of the NPP above their individual goals and to demonstrate leadership that attracts rather than alienates members.
“The NPP is bigger than any one of us. It always has been. Our collective responsibility is to act like it,” she stated.
By: Jacob Aggrey
